Very Cavallari star Justin Anderson revealed that he and his high school girlfriend gave a child up for adoption when they were just 18-years-old. (Instagram)
Reality TV star Justin Anderson has revealed that he and his teenage girlfriend placed a child for adoption when they were just 18 years old.
Anderson, a hair colourist who rose to fame on E!’s Very Cavallari, told the Scissoring Isn’t a Thing podcast that he had a girlfriend when he was in high school prior to coming out as gay.
Both he and his girlfriend grew up in devout Mormon families, and when she became pregnant during his freshman year in college, adoption was their only option.
Anderson told the podcast that there was “no talk of abortion” because of their religious backgrounds.
“So we found this beautiful couple. It was an open adoption. We had our son Tyler. I was in the hospital room. I’m 18 by the way,” he said.
“We hand our baby over to the family. And I drive back to college by myself and life goes on.”
Anderson later found the courage to come out as gay while in his junior year at college, which ultimately led to himself, his siblings and his parents leaving the Mormon church.
Very Cavallari star Justin Anderson reconnected with his biological son.
Three years ago, after 19 years, Anderson’s biological son made contact with him on Instagram.
“I am sitting on the couch and I get a direct message from my son literally saying: ‘Hey,’” Anderson said.
He has the most beautiful, sweetest, kindest family. They raised him so well.
“I go,: ‘This kid’s cute. Why is this kid writing for me?’
“I write back: ‘Hey, what’s up?’ and he says: ‘Do you know who this is?’ Boom. So then the whole thing happened.”
He later arranged to meet his son, along with both of their families, for dinner.
“He has the most beautiful, sweetest, kindest family. They raised him so well,” Anderson said.
Since then, they keep in touch through phone calls and texts, with Anderson saying: “We’ll see where it ends up going.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Anderson opened up about growing up in the Mormon church, saying his parents were “kind of bad Mormons” as they often did things that defied the church’s teachings.
He often saw his parents hiding things they weren’t supposed to have when family would come to visit.
“I remember as a kid that [was] telling me something. I cannot lie at all. I remember being like, that is the shadiest s**t I’ve ever seen. You guys are adults and you’re hiding stuff that you do every day. So as a kid I did question a lot with my parents.”
He also revealed that he came out to his parents directly after telling them he wanted to drop out of college and go to beauty school.
“I waited until my parents were both in Hawaii together and I called them and I’m like: ‘I’m not going back to college. I’m going to go to beauty school,’” he said.
“They lost their mind. That was this big type of thing. And then I came out of the closet!”